If you still aren’t sold on the idea of AMC doing a Walking Dead companion series, this latest bit of news might finally do it for you. It’s being reported that Kim Dickens is now set to lead the pilot episode. The show, code name Cobalt, takes place during the same zombie apocalypse as the original series, but in an entirely different location, allegedly the city of Los Angeles, and during a different time too, supposedly the early days of the zombie apocalypse.

The spin-off show will focus on a divorced teacher (Cliff Curtis) and a guidance counselor (Dickens) who work together and are in a relationship. Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam-Carey were also recently cast as the guidance counselor’s children from another marriage, her son who struggled with a drug problem and her ambitious daughter.

We know that Curtis’ character is “a good man who tries to do right by everyone in his life,” but, according to Deadline, Dickens’ character will have a dark side; “She looks like the girl next door but has a darkness to her, a troubled past that will come back to haunt her.”

Dickens has been delivering solid work for years, but as someone who hasn’t kept up with Sons of Anarchy or Treme, Gone Girl was the game changer. In fact, Dickens was almost distractingly good in that film as she brilliantly straddled the line between no-nonsense cop and someone who refuses to make assumptions without combing through the evidence first. There’s no doubt she’s a stellar get for this show.

Adam Davison is set to direct the pilot, which is scheduled to go into production in early 2015 after which AMC will decide whether or not to order it to series.